Bernard McGauran left his home
in County Sligo, Ireland, sometime in the 1830's. No one knows exactly
when. He came to Canada as a boy and was ordained into the priesthood
at St. Anne de la Pocatière, Québec, in 1846(1). A year
later the Irish Potato Famine sent thousands of desperate emigrants toward
Québec and into Father McGauran's care. But McGauran's arrival
predates the Famine Irish and is part of the first and most significant
wave of Irish immigrants to Canada: the period between 1825-1845(2).

Many people think of the Irish
Famine of 1847 as the time "when the Irish came to Canada." But an estimated
475,000 Irish landed in British North America before then. It was this
earlier wave of Irish immigrants that would shape the development of Irish
Canada and lay the most meaningful cultural foundations(3).

There had been 'emigration
mania' two decades before the Famine. The Irish economy had been declining
while the population was exploding. Emigrants were mostly from Ireland's
northern counties such as Ulster, north Connaught and north Leinster.
They were middle class and could afford the voyage over to a second chance
and a brighter future. It was an orderly emigration; most came in families,
but there were also single male and female immigrants. The majority of
these newcomers bypassed Newfoundland and Halifax, in favour of New Brunswick,
Québec and Ontario, following the traditional trading lanes between
Canada and England(4).